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Project Description:

The goal of this project is to develop a novel synthesis of a silicon terminated, conducting polymer, micro device for optical cellular stimulation.  The project will utilize recently developed electrochemical methods for growing silicon at room temperature avoiding a design restriction whereby devices to be constructed must begin with silicon substrates.  In addition the project will investigate improved signal transduction performance by utilizing conducting polymer as an electrode to tissue connection.  The work will investigate the feasibility of a new way of making a wide variety of potential new biotechnical devices.  This work will be performed at a two year college utilizing sophomore level undergraduate students.  The project will be used for developing these students for entry into the biomedical career pipeline.  The major project milestones are: 1) Establish the practice of existing conducting polymer growth techniques utilizing electrodepostion polyemers polypyrrole and polythiophene.  2) Apply developed electrodeposition of silicon technique onto conducting polymer films. 3) Pattern tructures using photomasking techniques integrated into making micro rod test structures where silicon is at the end of a rod of conducting polymer with the cell at the opposite end.  4) Culture cells and attach to the non silicon end of the conducting fibers and test for biocompatibility and photo-electric activations.  Preliminary work will be with fibroblasts working into invertebrate ganglia neurons harvested and cultured using established procedures.